What a Bargain from Bijan's

What a bargain from Bijan's of Beverly Hills

One hundred and sixty-five thousand* buys

Six hundred diamonds studding a chain

One hundred and fifty golden cubes

With a fine gold clasp to tether them all

At the nape of your neck where they gather

The night's vaguest rays and blaze

Like a lace of fire and light, a halo

Worn lower on an earthlier saint.

Show me the beauty who rivals these

Who looks better still undraped, unadorned

Directly from God whose last awesome touch

Installs the feminine fire of her skin.

Show me the woman who needs this much help

All the diamonds from Bijan's can't boost up

Her bosom or iron her wrinkles or lift purple spots

From her leathery flesh. Post party she'll stop 

Insulting these jewels, array them 

In a vault on a headless, velvet prop.

From where the fire? From where the light?

From the dark heart of stars set to blazing

By weight before eons began. The simplest parts

Piled onto themselves, clustered in clumps 

Beyond all conceiving, pressed to a heat

Beyond all withstanding, ignited a transforming

Primeval flame, its ash now made fuel

For the next level of change, destruction squared

When the center can't hold, exploding the new

Outward to find their next furnace

And begin all again. 

Later, so later, still far from our time,

This chaff of light crushed earliest ever 

Waits in the crust to be thrown heavenward 

Like a fistful of crystals scattered to lie

Close to the surface where they will be found 

By chance and become the beacons of kingship

The auras of beauty, the symbols of love vows 

The grinders of mountains, exacting pivots of time.

Does she know any of this? Where these jewels were born?

Does she know in the land where these were extracted 

Innocents wore necklaces too of uncompressed carbon 

Shoved down 'round her arms, a car tire soaked 

In gasoline and she--Maki Skosana--set afire

To play Joan of Arc for about half an hour?

Or that Tutu raced and clung to one victim-to-be

'Til the mad crowd relented and let him go free?

Those who don't know ought never 

Wear such lights round their necks 

Nor their fingers nor heads  

'Til they know at least some of the suffering 

Begotten of greed that made miners slaves 

Lopped limbs from children and gave 

Guns to the power-mad. 

Who can wear these then 

In anything but ignorance?

*Today's value adjusted for inflation: $353,000.00